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of Collections, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, The Bancroft Library, using the Online Research Request form
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Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Samuel David Luzzatto and Isaia Luzzatto papers, LIB 91.18, The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art
and Life, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Samuel David Luzzatto (also known under the acronym of SHaDaL), an Italian Rabbi, poet, grammarian and scholar of Hebrew letters,
was born in Trieste on August 22, 1800, and died in Padua on September 30, 1865. Luzzatto wrote his first Hebrew poem at the
age of nine, and by 1815 he had composed thirty-seven poems (later included in the two volumes of Kinor na'im, Vienna 1825
and Padua 1879). His translation of the Ashkenazi prayer book into Italian appeared in 1821-22, and that of the Italian rite
in 1829, the year in which he joined the faculty of the Collegio Rabbinico of Padua, where he remained until his death, teaching
Bible, philology, philosophy, and Jewish history. Among his many works are a study of Targum Onkelos (Ohev ger, 1830), commentaries
(in Hebrew and Italian) on the Pentateuch and haftarot (1871-76) and several other biblical books, as well as pioneering studies
on the Hebrew language and on Hebrew liturgical poetry (piyyut), the groundbreaking introduction (Mavo) to the Italian Machzor
(1856), and philosophical works (Mozne tzedeq: Vikuach 'al chokhmat ha-qabalah, 1852; Teologia morale israelitica, 1862; and
Yesodei ha-torah, 1880). Luzzatto corresponded with virtually all the leading Jewish scholars of his day, including Isaac
Samuel Reggio (1784-1855), Abraham Geiger (1810-1874), Leopold Zunz (1794-1886), Solomon Rapoport (1790-1867) and Moritz Steinschneider
(1816-1907). Circa four hundred of S. D. Luzzatto's letters were edited by his son Isaia, and published at the end of the
19th-century (Igrot shada"l, 1882-1894, and Pnine shada"l, 1883).

Isaia Luzzatto (Padua, September 27, 1836-November 7, 1898) was Samuel David Luzzatto's younger son. A lawyer active in his
hometown, I. Luzzatto collected his father's works, to which he devoted several introductory publications, most notably Reshimat
maamare shada"l... Catalogo ragionato degli scritti sparsi di Samuele Davide Luzzatto (Padua 1881). In a letter to the Italian
Jewish periodical, L'Educatore Israelita (vol. XIX/1871: 22), I. Luzzatto announced his intention to gather his father's massive
correspondence, including all personal letters, and asked the readers to send him all available copies in their possession.
A selection of these letters were published a decade later.

Scope and Content

The collection includes early manuscript poems (two are dated 1812-1813) and personal and professional letters by and to Samuel
David Luzzatto, dating from the 1817 until his death in 1865. Among the correspondents are some of the major rabbinical figures
of 19th-century Italy, including Marco Mortara and Moses Ehrenreich, and European Jewish scholars like Gabriel Jacob Polak
of Amsterdam (1803-1869), A. G. Samiler of Brody (1780-1854). It also includes a letter (dated Oct. 31, 1792) signed by Mazaltov
and Raffael Benedetto Segré who were to become S. D. Luzzatto's in-laws (R. B. Segré was one of Luzzatto's teachers in Trieste).
Several of the letters include annotations and added titles, either by S. D. Luzzatto himself or by another hand (possibly
his son Isaia's), which appear to be editorial comments in view of their publication in a volume. The collection also includes
what appears to be a draft of the manuscript title page, with a dedication, of Luzzatto's anti-Kabbalistic treatise, "Mozne
tzedeq: wiquach 'al chokhmat ha-qabalah," published in 1844 (no. 58).

The collection also includes the personal and professional correspondence of Isaia Luzzatto, dating from 1853 until the time
of his death. Some of the letters addressed to Isaia Luzzatto are from family, friends, and colleagues, while others are from
Jewish scholars and publishers interested in his father's published and unpublished works, and the payment of rights related
to their publication.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection: